Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to attend the Singapore Air Show 2018, Asia’s largest aerospace and defence event. This show happens every couple of years, but it was my first time to go because Jemma’s friend Jo gave us free tickets. Thanks, Jo!
Our tickets included free shuttle bus rides, so we headed to Expo where there was a long 20-minute winding queue to the bus. The ride to the location took 30 minutes. We arrived just 15 minutes before the first aerial display which was scheduled for 11:30 am. The bleachers were already packed full when we arrived, so we sat on the ground in front.
The sun was so bright that we wore sunglasses and used umbrellas. But the wind was so strong that it kept turning umbrellas upside down, like this:
When the air show started, everyone stood up and just oohed and ahhed at the performances of Singapore and Indonesia.
I have to say they were pretty impressive. Singapore’s finale involved fireworks, while Indonesia made a heart shape, perfect for Valentine’s month. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to catch a video of this. Hmph. I did manage to catch some other stunts, though, which you can watch along with the afternoon show videos which I will link later on in the story.
Korea was supposed to perform, too, but unfortunately, earlier in the week, one of their planes had an accident. Don’t worry, it wasn’t fatal. But Jo said they are normally the scene stealers so it’s too bad they didn’t get a chance to wow the crowd.
After the show, we headed indoors to look at the exhibition hall. There was a long queue at most of the Virtual Reality kiosks which I wanted to try, so we just took some photos with miniature planes and other displays.
We took a break for lunch and looked for food at some kiosks outside. Jemma and I shared a large Italian pineapple pizza.
We went back inside and discovered that Garuda Airlines had a booth where you could try out their first class seat. We’ve never been on first class, so it was great to be able to try what it was like to fully recline in an airplane chair which also happens to be a massage chair. So wonderful! I wish I could actually try one in the air someday!
We also discovered a flying school booth which allowed you to try the flight simulator. The queue was a bit long, so only Jemma and I tried it because Maybelle and Jon wanted to grab bleacher seats at the scheduled air show for 2:30 pm. It was a fun, interesting experience.
I wasn’t good at it, though. I kept on overcompensating my movements and the teacher had to guide me so that I could even get the plane to land on the strip instead of the grass. 😅 Thank goodness it was just a simulation and not the real thing.
After we were done, we headed outdoors again to catch the second aerial display. Maybelle and Jon had found some bleacher seats and they looked cute with their pretty umbrella.
This time around it was Japan and Singapore. There was a funny moment when an attention-seeking eagle (or some other large bird) decided to cross the sky at the exact same moment as Singapore’s fireworks finale.
You can catch that in action along with some of the highlights in the video below.
After that was done, we decided to look around at the Static Aircraft Display Area where you could view the impressive array of advanced avionics in fighter cockpits, tour the plush cabins of luxury jets and get inside the holds of transport giants.
The US Air Force plane reminded me of the fighter planes I’ve seen in action films.
There were long queues everywhere, especially to get on the cockpits, but we didn’t have the patience to wait, so we quickly went back into the airconditioned indoors, away from the hot sun. We found some free bottles of water inside and rested our feet while drinking those. Jo joined us for a chat, then we were on our way out in the shuttle buses, back to Expo, where we had dinner at Jollibee.
It was an interesting show. Jemma and I were certainly very pleased that even after almost a decade of living in Singapore, we could still have a first time experience of something.
Singapore Air Show 2018
9 Aviation Park Road, Singapore 498760
https://www.singaporeairshow.com/
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